Offseason Plan....

Thanks much, I've been on that site before, but somehow missed seeing that calculator page.

 

I'm presuming Spaeth was also meant to help our in that department. I have faith Moye can develop, but he needs to be on the field to be useful.

 

Idk we need to dominate the LOS like we used to...thats how we win football games....put the offense in 3rd and long...

i would love a guy like louis nix in the first and then go with shayne skov in the 2nd.... Timmons is a solid #2 ILB but we need a true #1...(keuchly)

 

its not an exact science, but it gives some idea what we can do to clear space... worlids is def possible ...

 

velasco as well hell get a 1 yr qualifying offer... worilds i can see 4 for 20 mil in tha area

 

Lersgofor7,

Your $$ estimates seem pretty close to me, but don't forget to allow some exta for signing in-season injury replacement players. Given our injury history of late, I say another $5mil at least, maybe closer to $7mil.

 

I think Keisel is gone, he is too old now unless he stays as a backup, Ziggy is gone unless he accepts league minimum, really that is all he deserves anyway. I think an impact TE would help the offense and the DL is where the real need is, the seconday would not look so bad if a 4 man rush could collapse the pocket and we wouldn't have to sell out against the run with some better guys up front.

 

yeah they will need about 7 mil for draft picks and 4-5 mil for free agents...its not exact..but they will have to tweak a few things here and there.... really dont want to restructure more than AB and timmons if possible

 

Freak, Scherff is a first round talent but he is coming back to the Hawks for his senior year he announced yesterday. At this point I would go after either a playmaker on offense or go CB in the first round. The real question is how does the front office approach the off-season. We should know a lot pretty quickly, especially if they sign Ben to an extension. I really think we need to continue to get younger, especially on defense.

Woodley is an interesting problem not sure how they will solve that one.

 

Nope the jungle of Guyana sign up with the Hoffman's they not only just found gold but diamonds in the mix!

 

i think Keisel, Ike, Woodley, Jones (the RB), Sanders and Clark are all gone. Woodley is the biggest question mark obviously. either he takes a pay cut or they try and trade him or eat his cap hit. i think the same goes for Troy.

they need to resign Worilds. he is a star in the making along with Heyward. they need to build the defense around those 2 guys along with Timmons. those are your 3 solid defensive players that are all young. hopefully Cortez Allen can take that next step.

i dont think Hood is going anywhere. i think Hood, Heyward, McClendon, Fungupo, Woods, Arnfelt are the guys they are gonna go with.

the secondary is a mess. Troy had a decent season, but a year older next year will only mean his game will take another step back. i think Clark and Ike should both be gone. W Allen, C Allen, Gay and Shamarko and hopefully a good draft and UFA class will help that group.

i think one of the biggest loses they had was Foote getting hurt. they never found a guy to fill his role and it was missed. i think Foote comes back at a discount and hopefully Williams can take that next step.

offensively they have some weapons, but the biggest question marks are Ben and Haley. are they both back is only one back and how does the offense change. Sanders is probably gone which means either Wheaton or Moye will get their chance. i think Cotch had a great season and he will be back.

the rb position i think should be Bell, Dwyer and either Howlings or Jones. im leaning towards Howlings.

as for the coaching staff. i think DL is done. his system is tired and predictable. also it hampers young players and right now this team needs to get younger on defense.

Haley is a huge question mark. i dont really want to see a new offensive plan that has to be learned, but i also dont think Haley and Ben are on the same page.

the one coach that took a lot of flack was Bicknell. i think the oline started to look pretty good even with all the injuries. if those guys can stay healthy i think he has them on the right track.

 

btw if we draft at 6/10 i would try to trade down a couple of times and add a 2nd and a 3rd to the low first . there are a lot of good players in the top 100

 

offense:
sign velasco and wallace and go get kevin boothe. draft david yankee and james hurst.

cut: gilbert,adams,pouncey,foster. save about 7 mil.

O-line: hurst, boothe, velasco, DD, yankee. backups: beachum,long,embernate,hubbard,Wallace.




TE: heath. draft fiedorowizc and ted bolser. set for ten years.

WR: AB,wheaton,moye,j.brown. re-sign cotchery.

FB: willj

RB: bell, alexander, kid from pitt, UDFA.

QB: ben, jones, UDFA. cut gradkowski.


Defense:
D-line: woods, heyward, arnfelt, Williams, mclendon, fangupo.

OLB: Woodley, JJ, carter, draft van noy.

ILB: Timmons, Williams, garvin, spence?. draft max bullough.

CB: gay, allen. cut ike and brown. draft deion belue. re-sign green and bring in some high priority UDFA's and possibly a mid-low tier FA.

S: t-roy with a paycut, Thomas. draft antone exum. possibly re-sign allen. priority UDFA (dan Sorensen). golden in camp but I don't hold high hopes for him.

ST:
K: cut suisham. replaced by UDFA.
LS: warren replaced by UDFA.
P: mcbriar. replaced by UDFA

this is my formula. if we trade down a few spots in the first this is all quite doable. it also cuts down our cap.

 

Nick Eason produced at a higher level than any of the linemen you mentioned...

 

how do we get better by getting rid of our best offensive lineman? Not to mention all the starters you propose to cut. We would still have to pay their replacements.

 

So, I usually like to see this building in a multiple step process. Step 1 was to lay out where we currently are. I want to cover the next 2 now. Step 2 is to look at the in-house options. Step 3 is to look at first round draft options at each of the positions. This post will deal with the OFFENSE ONLY.

So what do we need based on the original post.

QB: None Needed

RB: I think there is some debate about a RB from the fan base, but we aren't taking someone in round 1. Bell is our guy with Dwyer and Stevens-Howling as the next 2 up at the position. Jones will be pushed by some UDFA talents IMO. That is where I think we currently stand.

FB: I see no reason to do anything more than bring Johnson in some competition. That being said, as I said in the original post, I don't see a point in having a FB if you never use him. I was hoping his role would expand this year, not shrink. If we aren't going to use him, save the roster spot for someone else.

TE: Heath and Spaeth I think are givens. For in house options, I think we have Palmer, D. Johnson, and Paulson. Personally, if we can get someone to step in here and be the eventual replacement to Heath, I would love to see it. From the draft, I think we would be looking at any of these guys: Jace Amaro, Seferian-Jenkins, and Eric Ebron. Those 3 are the only top 2 round TEs IMO in this draft.

WR: This is going to be a position of tremendous change again. We have some different things going on. Brown is very, very good. The 2nd and 3rd WRs on this current team though are both UFAs. Sanders will probably be gone, but I think Cotchery will be back at a veteran figure. The other guys are all unproven....Wheaton, J. Brown, and Moye. Does the FO feel any of these guys are ready to be #2 WRs in this system next year? When it comes to draft options, there are some out there to be sure. My think is, I want the guy to be big, physical, and hopefully fast. Mike Evans is the class of the field. Sammy Watkins is a special talent, but IMO he isn't what this team needs. A guy I want to see more of, I see more of a 2nd day pick, would be Kelvin Benjamin.

Offensive Line: The Offensive line is all over the place. The 9 guys I have listed in the original post (Pouncey, Velasco, Embernate, Gilbert, Whimper, Adams, DeCastro, Beachum, Foster) were the only possible options I would even consider to actually come back to the team. There really is no one on the PS I trust or want back. When it comes to the draft, I think if we take someone in rounds 1 or 2, it needs to be someone special, or maybe I should say more than capable of starting soon. Jake Matthews could potentially meet that criteria. Lewan I think is Mike Adams part 2, so I would pass. There are other options out there, but I really haven't had a chance to look at the all of them, so I cannot comment on all of them yet. I don't see any guards or centers who meet the first or second round criteria for us.

Let me know what you think...

 

as a left tackle i like matthews scherr and hurst , i'm not sold on any of the other ones maybe koundijo

 

I really stopped reading after you wanted to cut 4 of 5 o-lineman.... not sure where u think u can get guys better at this point to fill in...maybe a qualifying level free agent or a draft pick...cutting foster saves about 600 k thats it....hes worth more on the team then to be cut

 

Yeah but what if we encounter the ghost of Jim Jones and the People's Temple??? LOL.

 

Thanks for the cool link! What is astounding to me is that between Woodley, Ike, Troy and Heath, they account for $46 million of our total 2014 cap. That is a full third of our entire salary cap. They may have been great players in their time, but none of them are worth that type of salary cap now. Ben also obviously needs to restructure.

 

really, then we should have kept him.

mclendon with 3 games to go already has 3 more tackles then Hampton did last year. he's 2 shy of casey's 2011 total. he has 9 more than Hampton had in 2010.

heyward is 6th on the team in tackles on the season. two guys are rookies, so yea, I guess he would have more then them, since they haven't been on the active roster this year. woods ha 11 tackles with two sacks in limited play this year. so I'm not sure where the eason comparison fits, but your way off on lack of production from these guys.

 

who are all the starters we are getting rid of off this 5-8 and 8-8 team that you are so worried about? I said re-sign our best lineman velasco. we have no money so. I'm not sure how you guys want to rebuild this mess and keep all our same guys. won't happen.

 

isn't this an after the season thread? who said cut these guys right now?

we cut them because we need the money and need to get better then what they are showing us. I don't care if you want to read it or not. I for one don't want to keep watching this poor talent on the field. we need money.

if we keep pouncey and lose velasco, this year and lose pouncey next year because he only has one left, and we are out of money, who's our center in 2015? pouncey and his one more year coming off a season ending knee injury and ankle surgeries the year before, could save us 4.7 mil. towards the cap. we could sign velasco and boothe for that and maybe less. pouncey has two bad ankles and a bad knee now and wasn't tearing it up before that.